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The Original Model

October 18, 2021 Patricia Zohn

Not long after Edouard Manet painted this portrait of Victorine Meurent (1866), a favored model who had also inhabited the bold Olympia and the alluring woman in Luncheon on the Grass, it was purchased for the Met in 1889. (Sorry for the slight crop)

Here, though in a chaste white dressing gown and elegant upright pose, she still emits a sense of mystery.

The Met notes recent scholars have interpreted it as an allegory of the 5 senses:

Parrot =hearing
Nosegay=smell
Orange=taste
Monocle=sight and touch

But even without that deeper dive, we see that this is a woman who is self aware and comfortable in her own skin, naked or clothed. In her case, the famous male gaze is met in kind.

In Fine Art Tags Edouard Manet, Victorine Meurent, Olympia
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